Hatton keen to return to ring

The Mancunian suffered the first defeat of his career in his heavily-hyped welterweight bout with Floyd Mayweather Jnr in Las Vegas last December.He will make his 2008 return to the ring at his natural 140 pounds on May 24 at either the City of Manchester Stadium or Wembley in a bout that is to be televised on HBO.Hatton, 29, was at the Scottish Exhibition and Conference Centre in Glasgow to support Braveheart Promotion's bill on March 29 which will see local boy Willie Limond take on Martin Watson for the vacant IBO Intercontinental lightweight title.Hatton spoke about his desire to get back to his trade.He said: "Obviously defeat was a hard pill to swallow and a lot of people were saying 'is he going to retire now?'
"But I don't think you are much of a champion if the first time you get beat, you hang the gloves up."It's all about coming back."Life's dead easy for everyone, no matter their profession, when it rolls along nice and smooth."You find out what a man you are and what a boxer you are when you have a few obstacles to climb and that's what I've got now."Hatton, however, put paid to any lingering suggestions that his 'homecoming' fight will be against WBC champion Junior Witter.
He said: "There are four or five opponents in the pipeline - Ricardo Torres, Herman Ngoudjo, Juan Lazcano and Kendall Holt."They should be announcing it by the end of next week and that is good news for me."I will fight Junior Witter when I want to."I found it hilarious reading in the paper that he was entitled to 70% because he is the champion but he was willing to take 30% - he'll be lucky."I'm not saying I won't fight him. You can never say never but I will fight him when I choose to."But at the minute I would like a homecoming fight to repay the fans because 30,000 went to La Vegas and sadly only 5,000 got tickets which was a big disappointment."Then I hope to go back to America and fight again."I think Junior needs to fight a few more creditable opponents because it's all about American television."So, although you can never say never, he is not in my immediate plans."Limond will be back in the ring for the first time since his defeat to Amir Khan in London last July.Khan took Limond's Commonwealth lightweight title but he had to pick himself up after a sixth-round knockdown to do so.Limond's promoter Barry Hughes admits he is still looking for a rematch for his boxer.He said: "A rematch with Amir Khan isn't out of the question.